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The Maple Leafs have to pretend their ugly loss against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday didn't happen.

They have little choice.

"The way the schedule is, I have said it all along, you have to move forward very quickly," captain Dion Phaneuf said.

"We know we got outplayed. We're not happy about it. We know we have to be better and we expect to be better (Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning).

"We wanted to start the trip off by getting a big win, but we did not play well enough. We have a chance to win and make it a .500 trip."

Phaneuf raised some eyebrows when he bolted for the dressing room during the game against Florida, but returned.

He said he had the wind knocked out of him and left for precautionary reasons.

ROAD APPLES

There's some cause for concern in the dressing room with the way the Leafs have played on the road.

They are 10-12-5 in games away from the Air Canada Centre this season, and of the their 22 games following the Olympic break, 13 are not in Toronto.

"We have not played well enough on the road," coach Randy Carlyle said. "The one issue for us is we have had too many lacklustre games where we don't seem to be involved in the game to the level that is required to get points. We have performances as we did (Tuesday) from our goaltender that have been wasted, and that is an issue.

"We had a chance to get to .500 and that to me is the most disappointing part of it. You are going to have to win on the road down the stretch, simple as that. To be a playoff team and to be a team that goes deep into the playoffs, you are going to have to have the comfort that you can go into any building and play your game."

PROVEN ASSET

Thanks to his ankle injury, Dave Bolland has played in just 15 games this season, but the Leafs centre doesn't see how that could impact his contract talks, whether it's with the Leafs or another team.

Bolland is slated to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

"I have won two Stanley Cups and I have been to the finals, so I know what it is like to get there," Bolland said. "I have been through those battles. I don't think this should hinder my contract (negotiations). (Teams) know what I do and what kind of heart I have out there, so I don't think so."

NOT QUITE RIGHT

Carlyle suspected the Leafs would have to face Steven Stamkos, and who could blame Carlyle? Stamkos, before he received the news on Wednesday that he was not game-ready in his recovery from a broken leg and will miss the Olympics, had said this week that he could not "see anything being a problem," with his CT scan.

"I would suspect there is a strong possibility we will see another player versus what we did not see in Toronto (when the Leafs and Lightning met last week)," Carlyle had said. "They say Saturday, but if he is cleared medically by the doctors, there is always that bullet in their holster to use as motivation."

Probably one of those times Carlyle didn't mind being off.

LOOSE LEAFS

The Leafs, or those who chose to participate, spent the afternoon on the water with their dads, as they chartered a fishing boat. The excursion was arranged by Paul Ranger, who is familiar with the area from his time with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nazem Kadri posted a photo to twitter, one that showed him holding a small shark ... The Toronto Marlies signed forward Kory Nagy to a professional tryout contract and recalled forward Mike Duco from Orlando of the ECHL.